This week, Square-Enix started marketing its latest Final Fantasy. Players have realized that certain images with markings have been used to illustrate certain settings in the game. These are protected images belonging to a recognized image bank. This isn’t the first time Square-Enix has used copyrighted artwork in one of these games.
If you are a fan of Japanese RPGs and if you have a Nintendo Switch, you have certainly not missed an important release of the week: that of Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion. Behind this extended name hides the remake of an unknown episode of the Final Fantasy VII compilation: Crisis Core, released in 2007 on PlayStation Portable. This game is a prologue to the saga. And the player controls Zack, a member of SOLDIER who met Cloud and Sephiroth.
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Released on December 13, 2022, the game has been tested extensively. And the notes are rather positive (but not dithyrambic), praising the modernity brought to this remake (even if it is not entirely a remake). In the new version of the game, the gameplay has been modernized and the story has been modified to stick to the small adjustments made to Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Images with marking have been forgotten in the sets of the last Final Fantasy
The graphics have also benefited from a complete facelift, in particular on the modeling of the characters, but also on the dressing of the environments. But Square-Enix has not necessarily taken all the care expected at this level. Indeed, our colleagues from Kotaku noticed that the developers used images protected by copyright in some settings, including that of the Shinra Mansion (as seen below).
One of them was integrated into a table. It represents Ludgate Circus in London at the end of the 19th century. In this image, it is possible to see the watermark affixed by the owner of the graphic resource, here Getty Images. And, of course, it’s not very clean. There are several hypotheses that explain the presence of this marking. First hypothesis: Square-Enix did not pay the rights to use this image. It’s petty. But it is possible. Second hypothesis (our favorite): it’s an accident. Square-Enix did buy the rights, but the developers forgot to replace the tagged images with the blank images in the final game.
If you have another hypothesis, the comments are obviously there to continue the debate. However, whatever the real reason for the presence of this marking, it is a stain: Square-Enix is a world-renowned publisher, present on the market for almost 40 years (Square was created in 1983 and Enix in 1975). So it’s not very serious. Especially since this is not the first time that a marking has been forgotten in a game. The last time was in Kingdom Hearts III.
Source : Kotaku
